THE JOINT COUNCIL

FOR

GOLF GREENKEEPER APPRENTICESHIP

Tomorrow's Greenkeepers are needed today.

Training Apprentices on your golf course will ensure that the Greenkeeping skills of the past can help with the upkeep problems of the future.

Hon. Secretary: W. Machin, Addington Court Golf Club, Featherbed Lane, Addington, Croydon, Surrey.

THE BRITISH GOLF

HON. EDITOR: F. W. HAWTREE

FOUNDED 1912 PUBLISHED MONTHLY FOR THE BENEFIT OF GREENKEEPERS, GREENKEEPING AND THE GAME OF GOLF BY THE BRITISH GOLF GREENKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

President: CARL BRETHERTON

Vice-Presidents: SIR W I L L I A M CARR G O R D O N W R I G H T F W . H A W T R E E

S . NORGATE I . G N I C H O L L S

F . V . SOUTHGATE P . HAZELL

W . K I N S E Y P . MARSHALL

W . PAYNE

Chairman: A . ROBERTSHAW

2 West View Avenue Burley-in-Wharfedale

Yorks.

Vice-Chairman: J . CARRICK

Hon. Secretary & Treasurer: C. H. Dix

Addington Cour t G .C . Featherbed Lane

Addington, Croydon, Surrey CRO 9AA

Executive Committee: Carl Bretherton (President)

G. Herrington R. Goodwin J. Parker A. A Cockfield H. Fry (Jun.)

E. W. Folkes P. McCarron

J Simpson H . M . Walsh

P. Malia

Hon. Auditors: M e s s r s SMALLFIELD R A W L I N S AND Co., Candlewick House, 116/126 Cannon Street, London, E.C.4

Hon. Solicitors: HENRY D O W D I N G , L L . B .

203-205 High Street Orpington

The Association is affiliated to the English and Welsh Golf Unions.

No. 316 New Series

SEPTEMBER 1971

SEPTEMBER

C O N T E N T S

PAGE 3 TEE SHOTS

4 A QUESTION O F RENOVATION

8 CORRESPONDENCE

9 SPECIAL OCCASIONS

11 TRIBUTE TO WILLIE BRADFORD

12 ABC OF COURSE LAND-SCAPING

15 T R A D E NEWS

17 B.G.G.A. A.G.M. AGENDA

18 NEWS F R O M THE SECTIONS

EDITORIAL AND A D V E R T I S E M E N T O F F I C E S : Addington Court Golf Club, Featherbed Lane, Addington, Croydon, Surrey. Telephone: 01-657 0281. SUBSCRIPTION R A T E : £1.25 fo r 12 issues post paid. Published during the first week of each month . LATEST COPY D A T E : 8th of month prior to insertion. All rights reserved. Reproduction of original articles and photographs in whole or in par t is prohibited. This Magazine shall not , without the written consent of the publishers first given, be re-sold, lent, hired out , or otherwise disposed of. Contributions and photographs of interest are invited. TO INSERT A CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT, write to the Advertisement Manager at the above address. The rate is 2 i p per word (minimum 15 words). Remittance must be sent with order. Please state number of insertions required and write advertisement in block letters. Advertisements will be inserted in the first available issue.

G R E E N K E E P E R

See us at Stand No. 3, Avenue ' F/ at I.S.M.E. Exhibition, Motspur Park, Sept. 14th-16th 2

KEEP THE BLADES GOING ROUND

an efficient Mower Repair Service is essential. We have one of the most

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MOWER REPAIRS

Mr H. Dodge has left the West Kent Golf Club and taken on the new Deangate Ridge Municipal Golf Course at Strood in Kent. It was interesting to see the transformation which took place when he took over from the contractors. An open space suddenly became a golf course, semi-rough appeared in all the right places, tees and greens suddenly looked right because they were mown right, and unkempt hedges suddenly looked tidy.

Now Mr Dodge is 48 and I admire him for tackling a job which is always more arduous than looking after an established course. What interests me particularly is the tradition he represents; automatically the job is organised on proper routine lines; automatically things are done which only a greenkeeper knows are necessary.

* * * *

The Greenkeepers' Association is something over 60 years old, its members have inherited a great tradition. They guard it and pass it on. Golfers argue about large greens, small greens, fast greens, slow greens. The greenkeeper quietly carries on and produces playing conditions according to the unwritten rules of his tradition.

The Apprenticeship Scheme is the best channel to ensure that this tradition is passed on. Without it, all the Green Committees in the world could not get things right.

T E E SHOTS

by the Edi tor

A QUESTION OF RENOVATION By W. N. S. Bisset, Advisory Officer, Sports Turf Research Institute

IN most sports both the playing area and the player can have a rest at the

end of a hard season to recover from the bumps and bruises obtained during play. The player can attend the treat-ment room to iron out any physical problems while the groundsman can give his uninterrupted attention to the playing area. This ensures that both are fit to receive further bumps the follow-ing season. This is not so on the golf course!

The golfer is out on the course for 12 months in the year in hail, rain or shine and even frost, if given the oppor-tunity. He plays on the same areas most of the year and at times seems to expect summer conditions in the winter. Repair work on the golf course is, therefore, subject to constant wear and interruption and the timing of renova-tion has often got to be amended to suit the fixture card. It may appear to the golfer, therefore, that renovation is another of those jobs designed to cause him some inconvenience and he will query the need for it. These questions and the answers are set out hereafter.

What Makes Renovation Necessary? The need for renovation is caused

basically by concentrated wear on a small area of turf and it follows that if wear can be spread over a larger area, then damage to any particular spot is much less. This point can be illustrated by comparing large and small tees at holes of similar lengths. The 44 postage s t a m p " type of tee will give rise to concentrated and heavy damage and major renovation work will be required. Small greens or greens which have only a limited amount of usable pin positions suffer damage in the same way.

In addition to those factors several other agencies can cause thinning out of the grass cover, bare patches or loss of surface. Soil conditions in associa-tion with weather can have a marked effect, e.g. over-acid soils show less drought resistance, poorly drained soils

may suffocate the grass roots hence affecting general vigour.

Even normal maintenance operations inefficiently carried out can cause damage, e.g. scalping with mower or chemical scorch. The former is often seen on banks and surrounds of greens. Disease can also severely damage turf if allowed to develop fully.

Further damage can be caused by four-legged pests such as rabbits or moles and even by two-legged pests in the form of vandalism.

Why Should Renovation be Carried Out?

As all the agencies mentioned in the first answer affect the density of the grass cover the basic reason for reno-vation is to restore a dense turf. Bare or thin areas are susceptible to invasion from weeds, moss and weedgrasses, all of which mar the surface. On greens in particular a true surface is required and while renovation is designed basically to restore the grass cover, improvement of levels must also be carried out.

Can Renovation be Eliminated?

The short answer to this question is 44 N o ! " However, damage can be minimised. On small areas some major rebuilding would be necessary to reduce the amount of wear, i.e. extending tees or recontouring of greens and banks. Attention to the provision of optimum conditions for grass growth may also be necessary, e.g. liming of over-acid soil, drainage or removal of excess fibre.

The other causes of damage can, of course, be eliminated at source by taking care when spraying, etc., and controlling disease before damage is done, but accidents do happen!

Where is Renovation Required?

Renovation in some form or another is usually required everywhere the golfer expects to find grass, including

continued on page 6

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continued from page 4

tees, fairways, banks, surrounds and traffic areas round greens.

When Should Renovation be Carried Out? Ideally renovation should be carried

out as soon as the damage is done but weather conditions, the demands of play and calls on labour mean that this is usually postponed until the autumn. There are, however, exceptions, e.g. turfing out of damaged areas before major competitions. If postponement of renovation work is necessary steps can be taken to minimise or reduce certain types of damage. Areas scorched by chemicals or dry patches which have developed can be hand forked and thoroughly watered.

Any seeding to be done is best com-pleted by the end of September while turfing should be finished by Christmas.

How Should Renovation be Carried Out? Renovation can be carried out either

by turfing or seeding and the decision to use either will be determined to a large extent by general circumstances and the area to be renovated.

Wherever renovation is to be carried out in the autumn maintenance opera-tions such as scarification and aeration should first be completed so that sub-surface conditions are improved and further surface disturbance is not immediately required. On certain parts of the course it may be possible to re-route traffic until establishment is obtained.

On greens where intensive mainten-ance is carried out and a true putting surface is required turfing is generally to be preferred and, to provide suitable turf, the establishment of a turf nursery is desirable. A turf nursery should be large enough to meet one's annual turf requirement for a few years in advance and maintenance should be carried out along the same lines as the greens. When turfing it is, of course, essential to provide an evenly firmed turf bed prior to laying the turf to marry in with surrounding levels. If any sinkage does occur it can then be top dressed out.

Where suitable turf is not available

seeding will, of course, be necessary. Sometimes it is best for the affected areas to be patched out using turf from the edges of the green and the edges seeded up. On completely bare areas complete overseeding may be required after spiking and scarifying. A seed bed can then be prepared using a rake and/ or a spiked roller. On thin areas hand rubbing in of a compost/seeds mixture should achieve the desired results.

Where heavily worn tees have to be renovated in the autumn an alternative teeing area should be provided. Adequate preparation is essential to relieve compaction and provide a good level seed or turf bed. On badly affected areas levels may have to be made good with a sandy compost before seeding or turfing. On less heavily worn areas it may be sufficient to adopt the normal divot-filling pro-cedure, i.e. filling up scrapes with compost/seed mixture, following up with an overall top dressing at a later date.

Fairways divot filling should form part of routine maintenance but large bare areas should suggest a possible need for lime treatment before seeding or turfing and soil testing may be required. Spiking also should form part of the renovation procedure on these areas.

Worn paths between bunkers and beside greens and tees are often accepted as unavoidable evils but in a high proportion of cases it is possible to re-route traffic, enabling some natural recovery to take place. Recovery can be assisted by spiking to relieve compac-tion, fertiliser treatment to boost growth and over-seeding to establish the more desirable grasses. Sanding or compost-ing of these areas may also help to provide a drier surface which is less susceptible to damage.

Results from renovation are often variable due to weather conditions and ensuing use — most areas having to remain in play and having to receive general maintenance, e.g. mowing. As with all immature things, time is required for them to be able to with-stand the rigours of play but time is at a premium on the golf course.

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See us at Stand No. 3, Avenue ' F / at I.S.M.E. Exhibition, Motspur Park, Sept. 14th-16th

7

CORRESPONDENCE Centre Dandenong Road,

Dingley Village, Victoria,

Australia, 3172 Dear Mr Dix,

Many thanks for your welcome letter received on the 30th May.

Further to my last comments, we are now in winter conditions, but quite different to those in the United King-dom. The frosts here are only surface frosts and no snow at all. The real trouble is rain, somewhere in the region of three inches has fallen lately, which has made my greens very wet. I have had to put the deep slit tined machine on them to keep them opened up. Fusarium is very common here—every-one gets it, with the very humid con-ditions. The temperature, usually around 55 to 60 degrees during the winter months, and the heavy morning dews is ideal for Fusarium.

We have a new fungicide here called Benlate. It is applied at the rate of 4 ozs. per 100 sq. yards and is normally effective for about ten weeks, but there is a variation — much depends on the state of the greens, the more 4 4 poa " the more risk of Fusarium. Removing the dew is often carried out here as it helps to spread the spores.

The old " little and often " is the general practise here when it comes to fertilisers. Roughly \ oz. Balanced to the square yard every three weeks to keep a uniform growth as one must remember the grass grows here con-tinually. 1 have to cut my greens three times a week without fail right along the line—fairways and tees likewise. I would think 60 per cent of the work is general maintenance, the damn grass never seems to stop growing.

On the machinery side Scott-Bonnar are the Ransomes of Australia, although

Ransomes machines are about and Flymo are also here with their three-unit Ride-On Models, but of course the price is too high. I have five Scott-Bonnar Super Cuts here for the greens —they are much the same as Ransomes 20-inch cut, ten blades—and they make a real good job of it. I also have three Massey Ferguson tractors (135) and they are very good, five powered Rotary Rough Cutters and a tractor-drawn Whirlwind Rough Cutter Rotary — I have a large amount of rough to cut. The members here don't like rough anywhere — with golf balls at 10/- each I can see why!

I received my journal last week and 1 was pleased to see that the Toro people from Watford had published my picture riding on a Toro 70 beside the first green at Wentworth Golf Club when I was working there as Head Greenkeeper — that brought back memories!

The mornings are getting lighter now. It starts getting light at 7 a.m. and dark at 5.30 p.m., but we are in our shortest time now. Average temperatures are now between 45 degrees minimum and 60 degrees maximum. By the end of September the temperatures will have reached 65-70 degrees and of course from November to February they jump sky high to anything up to 100 degrees and then watering is the main part of greenkeeping and is usually done during the late evening or from about 4 a.m. before the sun rises which is round about 5.30 a.m. This allows the water to soak into the turf before the heat of the day dries it up.

I will be pleased to hear from you at any time.

Your sincerely, Len Partridge.

AUG. 23rd ) 24th . Annual Tournament — Hollinwell Golf Club 25th J

SEPT. 8th Southern Section Autumn Tournament 8th Welsh Section Autumn Tournament

14th Midland Section Autumn Tournament i£th • International Sportsground Machinery and Equipment Exhibition — 16th i Motspur Park

23rd East Midland Autumn Tournament

OCT. 6th Welsh Section Friendly v. South-West Section 6th Southern Section Quiz — The Ship Tavern, E.C.3 8th North-West Section Tournament

NOV. 9th North-West Section Autumn Trip

RELFKENDALL OF CROYDON AND BARIMET

with pleasure announce that they hold the greatest concentration of lawn mower spares and lawn mower engine spares in the country

RANSOMES E N O R M O U S STOCKS OF RANSOMES SPARE PARTS

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Avenue F., at the International

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Motspur Park, Sept. 14. 15 and 16, 1971

We stock a comprehensive range of domestic and professional machinery Ask for a demonstration on YOUR ground

LIST OF ADVERTISERS EXHIBITING AT THE INTERNATIONAL SPORTSGROUND MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT EXHIBITION

ON SEPTEMBER 14, 15, 16, 1971 AVENUE ' A '

1 H. Pattison & Co. Ltd., Stanmore Hill Works, Stanmore, Middlesex. (Tel. 01-954 4171)

2 Sherwood Bros. (Sportsward) Ltd., 27A Spring Grove Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. (Tel. 01-570 6235)

AVENUE ' B * 1 Flymo Ltd., Greycaine Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD2 4PT. (Tel.

92-41301) J. Gibbs Ltd., Stanwell Road, Bedfont, Middlesex. (Tel. 01-890 5071)

AVENUE 4 C ' 1 Farmfitters Ltd., c /o City & Berks Advertising Ltd., Copthall House, St

Ives Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire.

AVENUE 4 D ' 4 Pressure Jet Markers Ltd., 152 The Arches, Stamford Brook Station,

Hammersmith, London, W.6. (Tel. 01-748 9255) 12 Charles H. Pugh Ltd., Ateo Works, P.O. Box No. 256, Tilton Road,

Birmingham. (Tel. 0332 21201)

AVENUE 4 E ' 1 Birmid Qualcast (Homes & Gardens Equipment) Ltd., Coleridge Street,

Derby, DE/ 7JT. (Tel. 0332 21201) 5 Thomas Green & Son Ltd., P.O. Box No. 45, North Street, Leeds.

(Tel. 0532 20357)

AVENUE ' F " 1 Relf & Kendall Ltd., 406 Brighton Road, South Croydon, Surrey.

(Tel. 01-688 0578) Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd., Nacton Works, Ipswich, IP3 9QG.

(Tel. 0473 72222) 3 T. Parker & Sons (Turf Management) Ltd., Worcester Park, Surrey.

(Tel. 01-337 7791) 4 Sisis Equipment (Macclesfield) Ltd., Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2LZ.

(Tel. 0625 26363) 6 Huxley Garden Machinery, 22/26 Church Street, Staines, Middlesex.

(Tel. 79 51123)

AVENUE 4 G ' 4 Hayters Ltd., Spellbrook, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. (Tel. 027-972

3444) 9 Rolfe's Mini Tractors Ltd. (B. A. Rolfe & Sons Ltd.), Winchester Hill

Romsey, Hampshire. (Tel. 07945 3185)

AVENUE 4 H ' 1 Rolfe's Mini Tractors Ltd. (B. A. Rolfe & Sons Ltd.), Winchester Hill

Romsey, Hampshire. (Tel. 07945 3185) 7 Supaturf Products Ltd., Werrington, Peterborough. (Tel. 0733 72470)

1 7 T h e Cannock Agricultural Co. Ltd., Bridgtown, Cannock. Staffordshire (Tel. 054-35 2727)

19 Carters Tested Seeds Ltd., P.O. Box No. 568, Raynes Park S W 20 (Tel. 01-946 5111) ' '

21 Fisons Ltd., Agrochemical Division, Harston, Cambridge. (Tel 0223 870312)

23 Stewart & Co., Seedsmen, Ltd., 13 South St Andrew Street, Edinburgh (Tel. 031-556 2102) * '

AVENUE 4 J '

2 Sutton Seeds Ltd., London Road, Reading. (Tel. 0734 61151)

AVENUE 4 K ' 12 Cameron Irrigation Co. Ltd., Harwood Industrial Estate. Littlehampton

Sussex. (Tel. 090-64 3985) '